Michael MuchmoreJason Cohen12 Tips to Help You Master Apple's MojaveApple's latest operating system, macOS Mojave, adds many new desktop features. Here are some tips and tricks for mastering all the changes.

Mojave, the next version of macOS, arrived in September 2018, and introduced many new features to help make your Mac experience even more user-friendly. The only trouble is keeping track of the new goodies and figuring out how to use them.

The previous macOS update, High Sierra, was more of a hardening and performance update for the operating system. This time around, Mojave packs in several new features and capabilities that will help Mac users stay organized, search more efficiently, and conduct simple tasks faster.

If you're just getting around to updating your OS now, or just haven't figured out everything you can do, here are 12 tips to help you get the most out of Mojave. Still haven't made the upgrade? Head to the Mac App Store and download it now.

Turn Off Dynamic Wallpaper

One of the first things you'll notice in Mojave is the dynamic wallpaper that serves as the background of your desktop. Taking inspiration from the desert, Apple included an image of a sand dune that changes depending on the time of day. The sun moves in the sky, and when night falls, the landscape goes dark.

While this is a cool little feature, and mostly harmless, it does use location data in order to accurately determine the time of day. If you're not comfortable with that, remove it and replace it will a static image. Just go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop and select between dynamic images and simple pictures.

How to Turn on Dark Mode in Mojave

Give your eyes a break. Mojave introduces a Dark Mode to make those bright lights a little more palatable. Turn it on by navigating to System Preferences > General > Appearance: Dark. Apple's Dark Mode effectively transforms every window, program, and application—including Finder, Safari, Calendar, and Messages. Third-party developers can also implement Dark Mode in Mojave; it's already in the works for Chrome.

Color Code All Your Files

Apple has always packed different colors into its themes, but this time around there is far more color selection than ever before. Mojave gives you eight different colors to choose from, which means a wider selection of menu themes to enjoy and more categories to organize your files. Go to System Preferences > General > Accent color to make a selection. Categorize a file or folder by a specific color by right-clicking on it.

Organize Your Desktop With Stacks

Mojave will make sure that you are never overwhelmed by the amount of files on your desktop again. A new feature called Stacks allows you to group content together in ways that make the most sense.

To use the Stacks feature, right-click on a file or the desktop and select Use Stacks from the drop-down menu. Essentially, screenshots will be grouped with screenshots, photos with photos, and PDFs with PDFs, etc. You can also arrange Stacks using keyword tags.

Once the files are grouped together, you can use the trackpad to scrub through the contents of the stack without clicking through. Click on a stack to expand the contents on the desktop. Undo Stacks the same way you enabled it.

Edit Files Without Opening Them

With Gallery View in Finder, Apple has revamped how your computer interacts with all your saved files. It provides a horizontal view of all your thumbnails, as well as quick access to markup options, edit controls, and metadata.

Edit photos and videos without having to open the files first. Click on a file and hit the space bar to access the file in Quick View, then make your edits. Markup screenshots, crop and rotate photos, trim audio and video files, and even create a PDF by selecting multiple files.

All changes to a document in Quick view can be reverted, overwritten, or saved as a separate document. Easily share your files through services like AirDrop and Mail. You'll be in and out of the editing process before a program like Photoshop can even boot up.

Mojave also gives you access to all the metadata in your photos. You can fully customize all this information, meaning pictures can be categorized by lens, aperture, color, and anything else you can think up.

Take Better Screenshots and Video

Mojave's new Screenshot tool allows you to capture screenshots of different sizes all from the same window: the entire screen, a selected window, or a custom portion.

If you're looking to record your screen, Apple now allows for that, too. Next to the screenshot options are the choices to record your entire screen or a selected portion. There are also options to change the save destination, set a timer, and select what shows up in the screenshot, like your mouse pointer.

Launch the Screenshot tool by going to Launchpad (F4) > Other > Screenshot. While many of the screenshot hotkeys familiar to Mac users still work the same, using Shift + Command + 5 will now activate the tool.

Get More Done with New Apple Stock Apps

One of Apple's big focuses in Mojave is extending iOS app functionality to the desktop to help you be more productive. Mojave's stock apps, located in Launchpad, allow you to follow the news, monitor the stock market, create voice memos, control your smart home, and organize your reading selections.

Stay on top of the latest news and choose specific topics (business, sports, etc.) or outlets (Wall Street Journal, NPR, etc.) to follow with Apple News, which also allows you to receive notifications and save reads for later.

Keep tabs on your portfolio and read related financial news with Stocks. A watchlist keeps everything organized in one place.

Create recordings with Voice Memos, and then save, edit, or share them right from the app.

Control your HomeKit-enabled smart devices right from your computer with the Home app. Create automations for your smart lightbulbs, thermostats, and door locks with your Apple TV or or HomePod from the desktop app. (You'll also need an iPhone or iPad to make the initial pairing.)

Mojave also has its own version of the new Apple Books app. While it's unlikely you'll be reading lengthy tomes on your computer screen, it's still nice to have some continuity here in order to keep track of your library. (For more on that, check out How to Use Apple Handoff.)

How to Use Continuity Camera

With Continuity Camera, you can take pictures on your iOS device and have them immediately available on your Mac.

To get this to work, your Mac and iOS devices must have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on and be signed into iCloud with the same Apple ID and two-factor authentication enabed. The iOS device must have iOS 12, and the Mac needs Mojave, of course.

Then, open one of the supported apps (Finder, Keynote 8.2, Mail, Messages, Notes, Numbers 5.2, Pages 7.2, and TextEdit). Control-click where you want the photo to appear and choose Import or Insert from iPhone or iPad > Take Photo. That opens the camera app on your iPhone or iPad. Take a shot, select Use Photo, and it will appear on your Mac. (Or scan images via Import or Insert from iPhone or iPad > Scan Documents.)

Manage Passwords With Siri

Instead of having to remember every password you use on your Mac, let your computer remember them for you with iCloud Keychain, which is now compatible with Siri. Just ask her to pull them up. Don't worry, though—not everyone can gain access. You will need to confirm your identity with a password or Touch ID before you can look at all your security credentials.

A Safer Safari Experience

With the Mojave update, Safari adds new tracking protection features. Your browser will now notify you when it detects a social tracker on a web page, and stop websites from tracking you based on your tech footprint. Safari will also show a simplified configuration to any sites that may be watching, which essentially makes all Mac users look identical.

Mac App Store Update

With Mojave, Apple redesigned the App Store to be more consistent with its mobile counterpart, splitting content into different tabs to make searching easier and more effective than before.

Discover acts as a home page, while Create focuses on art, Work features productivity apps, Play is where you will find games, and Develop offers development tools for programmers. Each section comes with Editor's Choice selections and Apple's own suggestions.

If you're looking for more specific categories—like Entertainment, Music, or Sports—Categories will allow you to filter the store's content. Updates feature any pending updates that are available for your apps, but Mojave-specific updates will be located elsewhere.

Stay Updated In a New Place

Starting with Mojave, macOS updates will no longer be made available in the App Store. Instead, Apple has introduced automatic updates for both the operating system and store apps. This means you now have a choice of where to download your updates.

To check for available updates, go to System Preferences > Software Update. To control when you receive them, check and uncheck any options you want, like whether or not you receive automatic updates, if your computer checks for updates, and if it downloads those updates. You can also control the specific files your computer will download, whether it be macOS updates, App Store app updates, or security updates.

About the Author

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine's lead analyst for software and web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine's coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of web services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine's S... See Full Bio

More From Michael

Jason has been writing and editing professionally since graduating from University of Maryland, College Park in 2010. He has previously served as a technical writer for a government contractor and a copywriter with a digital advertising agency, where he wrote about marketing and tech. Most recently, he was writing about the New York Yankees for SB ... See Full Bio

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